Department of Mathematics
String and skein topology of oriented 3-manifolds.
Uwe Kaiser
Boise State University
Abstract: The skein (or quantum) topology of links in oriented 3-dimensional manifolds has been studied intensely during the last 15 years. But the precise relation of the "new" invariants with the classical geometric topology of 3-manifolds is still not fully understood. Recently Moira Chas and Dennis Sullivan discovered new interesting algebraic structures on the (equivariant) homology groups of the space of maps from a circle into the 3-manifold. These structures are defined from "string interactions" in the manifold and are motivated by the string theory in physics ( a theory trying to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity theory). In the talk I will describe results concerning the relation between the string topology of Chas-Sullivan and the skein topology of oriented 3-manifolds.
All interested persons are welcome.
The talk will be accessible to upper class students.